A Fly On My Homeschool Wall

 Obviously, our homeschool goes on as planned (mostly) when the weather turns bad, but the extreme winter weather has caused most--if not all--of the kids' activities to be canceled. We're starting a round of winter colds. But we dove into regular school all day Monday.  Nature Angel finished her star blanket while I read To Kill a Mockingbird to the teens. She hasn't blocked it yet--hence the curling points--but isn't it so pretty? It used to be half of another blanket that she started.  When it turned out much bigger than she thought it would be, she searched for more yarn, but it turns out that this yarn is now "vintage" and costs an arm and a leg per skein.  It sat half-finished for a year or more until she was inspired to do this star. It was so funny to watch one blanket unravel and turn slowly into another blanket. The teens and I still have most of To Kill a Mockingbird to finish, but we did complete the quarter 1 exam for The Mystery of History v...

He's little . . . but he's big . . .   I'm just stunned not to have any babies anymore. I've tried to never treat him like the baby--even going so far as to run our little daycare for a few years so that he wouldn't be the youngest and he could learn to care for others more helpless than himself. But as with Lola, my heart is constantly gasping as I switch between delight and sorrow in his growing up. He's a reader and writer. He writes long, long journal entries every single night. I love helping him spell random words--survivor, movie, commandments, etc. His narrations are simple but enjoyable, and he's willing to make a few corrections at a time, so he's slowly learning the rules of grammar, capitalization, and punctuation. He reads like Mister Man . . . and his mom (me). He can't hear anything when he's reading.  I have to get right up to his face and wave a bit as I call his name to get his attention when it's time to clean up or eat or ...

 We started our week at our friend's pool. This sweet friend not only invited us to spend half a day swimming with her, but she provided a beautiful lunch for us all.   Then she invited us back again! (In a couple of weeks) We sat down to write thank you notes the next day. And Nature Angel drew this pencil sketch as the main card and gift. I'm of the opinion that our friend should frame this signed original and hang it in her cabana! I love that she included the three mom friends (the friend with the pool, an old homeschool friend, and me) in the left loop of the pool. Several of the kids learned to dive on this day, so not only did we have lots of fun, we had P.E. as well! For our Summer Baking Bingo activity, we made homemade lemonade. Nature Angel interviewed for and got her first out-of-the-home job.  She'll be working for an Eldercare community.  It's huge--covering acres and acres of land--with services from apartments for seniors who live independently ...

Monday  We started our week by attending our church Memorial Day pancake breakfast at the park.  My kids ran and played for several hours.  When we got home . . . 6 out of 8 kids fell asleep ! And the 2 that didn't nap, just lay quietly reading. We were all strangely tired, so we had a very quiet rest of our day. Tuesday was a regular school day for us with a single youth church activity:  the 11- and 12-year-old boys taught the rest of the youth how to change a tire.  Several brave men volunteered their vehicles for hands-on practice, and it sounds like the evening was a success.  On Wednesday we completed a few things.   The kids and I finished  The Horse and his Boy, Alice in Wonderland, and The Story of the World vol 1. Ladybug finished Math 4 !! I considered letting her have a break but decided against it because she forgets too easily.   I'd rather let her dive right into the review lessons at the start of Math 5 to sol...